Drank: Belgian-Style Abbey Ale (Hopworks Urban Brewery)

Leave it to the Germans, authors of the
Reinheitsgebot beer purity law, to create the first modern organic beer
in 1980. Craft brewing has come a long way in the last 30 years, and so
has organic beer. This much will be evident at this weekend’s North
American Organic Brewers Festival, where you’ll find one IPA brewed with
Thai coconut flakes and mangoes and another brewed with yerba mate tea.
Portland hosts the event and is home to a quarter of the 40 breweries,
including Hopworks, whose beer is typically as hoppy as its name
implies. But it switches gears for this organic Belgian-style Abbey Ale,
emphasizing spicy yeast in a plum-colored beer with plum brandy notes.
It’s Hopworks’ first foray into bottle conditioning, and some sweetness
gets scrubbed off by high carbonation, saving it from the syrupiness in
other emulations of the style.